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The Last Days of Chez Nous and Two Friends
The Last Days of Chez Nous & Two Friends showcases the range of one of Australia’s greatest writers. These two scripts for films— The Last Days of Chez Nous was directed by Gillian Armstrong in 1991, and Two Friends by Jane Campion in 1986—are funny, sharp observations of relationships and friendships that are as intimate and engrossing as Helen Garner’s acclaimed novels. This edition comes with a new introduction by the internationally renowned screenwriter Laura Jones, winner of the inaugural Australian Writers’ Guild Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016. Helen Garner is an award-winning author of novels, stories, screenplays and works of non-fiction. In 2006 she received the inaugural Melbourne Prize for Literature and in 2016 a Windham-Campbell Prize for Non-Fiction. Her novel The Spare Room , published in 2008, won the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Fiction, the Queensland Premier’s Award for Fiction and the Barbara Jefferis Award, and has been translated into many languages. Her non-fiction book This House of Grief won the Ned Kelly Award for Best True Crime of 2015. Helen Garner’s most recent book is Everywhere I Look . ‘(Garner’s) humour and pathos shine…The stories are absorbing, the preface, quite fascinating.’ BookMooch
225 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 1992
3 people are currently reading
123 people want to read
About the author
Helen Garner
51 books1,348 followersHelen Garner was born in Geelong in 1942. She has published many works of fiction including Monkey Grip, Cosmo Cosmolino and The Children's Bach. Her fiction has won numerous awards. She is also one of Australia's most respected non-fiction writers, and received a Walkley Award for journalism in 1993.
Her most recent books are The First Stone, True Stories, My Hard Heart, The Feel of Stone and Joe Cinque's Consolation. In 2006 she won the Melbourne Prize for Literature. She lives in Melbourne.
Praise for Helen Garner's work
'Helen Garner is an extraordinarily good writer. There is not a paragraph, let alone a page, where she does not compel your attention.'
Bulletin
'She is outstanding in the accuracy of her observations, the intensity of passion...her radar-sure humour.'
Washington Post
'Garner has always had a mimic's ear for dialogue and an eye for unconscious symbolism, the clothes and gestures with which we give ourselves away.'
Peter Craven, Australian
'Helen Garner writes the best sentences in Australia.'
Ed Campion, Bulletin
Her most recent books are The First Stone, True Stories, My Hard Heart, The Feel of Stone and Joe Cinque's Consolation. In 2006 she won the Melbourne Prize for Literature. She lives in Melbourne.
Praise for Helen Garner's work
'Helen Garner is an extraordinarily good writer. There is not a paragraph, let alone a page, where she does not compel your attention.'
Bulletin
'She is outstanding in the accuracy of her observations, the intensity of passion...her radar-sure humour.'
Washington Post
'Garner has always had a mimic's ear for dialogue and an eye for unconscious symbolism, the clothes and gestures with which we give ourselves away.'
Peter Craven, Australian
'Helen Garner writes the best sentences in Australia.'
Ed Campion, Bulletin
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
June 5, 2016
The Last Days of Chez Nous & Two Friends is a reissue of a book by award-winning Australian author and journalist, Helen Garner. It was first published in 1992, with a preface by the author. This Text Classics edition also features an insightful Afterword by internationally renowned screenwriter Laura Jones. Chez Nous and Two Friends are both screenplays.
The Last Days of Chez Nous was written in 1992, produced by Jan Chapman and directed by Gillian Armstrong. Vicki, younger sister of Beth, returns from an extended overseas stay to the house where Beth lives with her French husband, JP, and her sixteen-year-old daughter, Annie. While, on the surface, it seems to be a happy household, it is soon apparent that there is an undercurrent of tension. When Beth leaves on a road trip with her father, the dynamics of the household change.
Two Friends was written in 1986, produced by Jan Chapman and directed by Jane Campion. Louise and Kelly are fourteen, best friends who have been accepted into City Girls High School. The story covers a ten-month period of their lives, a time of significant upheaval, and is told in reverse, in five parts. This means that the reader/viewer knows the outcome of the story and the reasons for that outcome are gradually revealed.
In her preface, Garner explains how and why she came to write these screenplays, and how different the process is from writing a novel, or a non-fiction book. As the link between the author’s mind and the screen, a screenplay sits in a unique position. Descriptions are often quite sparse, and Garner explains how important the actor’s interpretation is in bringing the author’s message to the audience.
As screenplays, the lack of Garner’s usual rich prose means that these stories rely mainly on the dialogue. It is therefore a testament to Garner’s talent that the humour and pathos shine through, and even for those who have not seen the final product, the result is easily brought to mind. The stories are absorbing, the preface, quite fascinating. Recommended!
The Last Days of Chez Nous was written in 1992, produced by Jan Chapman and directed by Gillian Armstrong. Vicki, younger sister of Beth, returns from an extended overseas stay to the house where Beth lives with her French husband, JP, and her sixteen-year-old daughter, Annie. While, on the surface, it seems to be a happy household, it is soon apparent that there is an undercurrent of tension. When Beth leaves on a road trip with her father, the dynamics of the household change.
Two Friends was written in 1986, produced by Jan Chapman and directed by Jane Campion. Louise and Kelly are fourteen, best friends who have been accepted into City Girls High School. The story covers a ten-month period of their lives, a time of significant upheaval, and is told in reverse, in five parts. This means that the reader/viewer knows the outcome of the story and the reasons for that outcome are gradually revealed.
In her preface, Garner explains how and why she came to write these screenplays, and how different the process is from writing a novel, or a non-fiction book. As the link between the author’s mind and the screen, a screenplay sits in a unique position. Descriptions are often quite sparse, and Garner explains how important the actor’s interpretation is in bringing the author’s message to the audience.
As screenplays, the lack of Garner’s usual rich prose means that these stories rely mainly on the dialogue. It is therefore a testament to Garner’s talent that the humour and pathos shine through, and even for those who have not seen the final product, the result is easily brought to mind. The stories are absorbing, the preface, quite fascinating. Recommended!
May 19, 2025
Sooo interesting to read a script by Garner, without all the prose and description that makes her so characteristic! Even despite the lack of room for anything other than structure and dialogue, there are still some Garner tells. I enjoyed reading the screenplay far more than I enjoyed watching the movie, although I did visually enjoy the setting of the movie being in Glebe rather than the screenplays’ Melbourne.
January 23, 2017
‘Helen Garner is an invaluable guide into harrowing territory and offers powerful and unforgettable insights.’
Kate Atkinson on This House of Grief
‘Garner’s spare, clean style flowers into magnificent poetry.’
Australian Book Review on This House of Grief
‘Her voice—intimate yet sharp, wry yet urgent—inspires trust.’
Atlantic on This House of Grief
‘(Garner’s) humour and pathos shine…The stories are absorbing, the preface, quite fascinating.’
BookMooch
‘Exceptional…Garner’s polished script believes in the power and relevance of small domestic moments.’
LA Times
Kate Atkinson on This House of Grief
‘Garner’s spare, clean style flowers into magnificent poetry.’
Australian Book Review on This House of Grief
‘Her voice—intimate yet sharp, wry yet urgent—inspires trust.’
Atlantic on This House of Grief
‘(Garner’s) humour and pathos shine…The stories are absorbing, the preface, quite fascinating.’
BookMooch
‘Exceptional…Garner’s polished script believes in the power and relevance of small domestic moments.’
LA Times
Read
October 26, 2022The library where I work offers access to this thing called Universal Class, where you can take free continuing education classes and where I was ASTOUNDED to find no offerings for astrology?! What why! Who knows, big mystery atm, I'll fill you in if I ever clear it up but anyway so instead I am taking Screenwriting 101 and Assignment #2 has you read a screenplay.
I'd purchased this paperback while listening to Blank Check's Jane Campion miniseries earlier this year--I found myself falling in love with Campion's movies in that satisfying, visceral way that art used to more reliably get into me bones with but which I've had less access to for a while. Been a bit behind a corduroy wall as it were haven't I. Had to go in on a lot of the tools and elements of my own practice and taste, the past couple years, and one of the costs of that interrogation has been some measure of detachment. Which I don't LOVE, ya know? I like to go in fullface jellybody blobbin all over my BIG FEELINGS for the stuff I LOVE SO MUCH/HATE SO BAD I'M GUNNA BUST. Which, ya know. Has its place. And I do find myself better situated in my own driver's seat such that when I get big feelings it's not so overwhelming/dangerous, which was really I guess what I was going for more than anything. So that is very nice.
Anyway it was good to have a reason to actually read this screenplay because I watched the film on an old VHS and with the accents it's pretty tricky making sense of everything the characters are saying. This story and the film of it are very much in the little handmade world of things that is my favorite corner for art and story, the world where it feels like someone made this in their room and if you get to see it it's because you're lucky.
Anyway I'm adding it to my Read list even though I didn't read the other screenplay in it.
I'd purchased this paperback while listening to Blank Check's Jane Campion miniseries earlier this year--I found myself falling in love with Campion's movies in that satisfying, visceral way that art used to more reliably get into me bones with but which I've had less access to for a while. Been a bit behind a corduroy wall as it were haven't I. Had to go in on a lot of the tools and elements of my own practice and taste, the past couple years, and one of the costs of that interrogation has been some measure of detachment. Which I don't LOVE, ya know? I like to go in fullface jellybody blobbin all over my BIG FEELINGS for the stuff I LOVE SO MUCH/HATE SO BAD I'M GUNNA BUST. Which, ya know. Has its place. And I do find myself better situated in my own driver's seat such that when I get big feelings it's not so overwhelming/dangerous, which was really I guess what I was going for more than anything. So that is very nice.
Anyway it was good to have a reason to actually read this screenplay because I watched the film on an old VHS and with the accents it's pretty tricky making sense of everything the characters are saying. This story and the film of it are very much in the little handmade world of things that is my favorite corner for art and story, the world where it feels like someone made this in their room and if you get to see it it's because you're lucky.
Anyway I'm adding it to my Read list even though I didn't read the other screenplay in it.
August 24, 2025
Gorg, even more fun if you act it out
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews